RSA Security 5.2.2 manual Cryptographic Standards and Crypto-C, Pkcs Standards and Crypto-C

Cryptographic Standards and Crypto-C

Cryptographic Standards and Crypto-C

PKCS Standards and Crypto-C

Crypto-C is a general-purpose programming tool that developers can use to write a wide variety of applications. Crypto-C was built to help developers implement the Public-Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS), a series of documents that specify a standard way of performing basic cryptographic operations. Several higher-level standards, such as S/MIME, SET, IPSec, and SSL, require implementation of various PKCS standards. Since Crypto-C complies with PKCS standards, developers should find it fairly easy to integrate Crypto-C into software that implements the PKCS standards.

For copies of the PKCS documents, see the PKCS section of RSA Security’s Web site at http://www.rsasecurity.com/rsalabs/pkcs, or contact our sales department for a PKCS diskette.

NIST Standards and Crypto-C

Certain Crypto-C releases may be used to produce applications that are compliant with the Federal Information Processing Standards. Compliance with the FIPS standards is often required by government agencies and contractors. The National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) establishes the FIPS standards, and certifies FIPS-compliant applications.

As changes are made in a new release, RSA Security may need to reapply for NIST certification. If you need to verify whether or not a specific release is compliant with FIPS, contact your sales representative.

NIST Approval and Windows 32-bit Platforms

If you require NIST approval for your Windows 32-bit applications, you may benefit from using the FIPS-compliant Crypto-C algorithms listed following this paragraph. NIST may approve the use of these algorithms in your application without requiring further algorithm-level testing of your application, based on the algorithm certificates issued to Crypto-C. For more information, see the algorithm compliance Web site provided by NIST.

Crypto-C includes the following FIPS-compliant algorithms:

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